December 8, 2006

Prompt #9 Interaction with the Designed Environment

The playbook presentation was excellent. The color and light concepts they talked about were especially fascinating. The amount of light entering a room is a direct interaction with the designed environment. The placement of winodws in a classroom directly influences how a child learns. If a child is placed in a room with no natural light underneath traditional flourescent bulbs, they learn less than when they are placed next to a window or are in a room with full spectrum lighting. This same concept can also affect your mood. During the summer people are generally happier, in the winter people tend to be sadder. These mood swings that occur with the seasons is called seasonal affect disorder or SAD. These mood swings can be contributed to the fact that your body produces vitamin D when it's exposed to natural sunlight or the aritificial light produced in tanning booths. VItamin D helps trigger sensors in your brain that release dopamine or happy juice. This release that makes people feel good is major reason why people get addicted to indoor tanning in the winter. If a student is happy they learn better. We, as architects designing their schools, can directly impact the placement of windows and doors in a classroom. By affectively distributing natural lighting throughout a room by a proper design, we can essentially boost classroom learning through the designed environment.